* Q1 GDP growth around 6 percent -government researcher
* In line with figures released by official newspaper
* That would be slightly below Reuters forecast of 6.3 pct
BEIJING, April 15 (Reuters) - China's annual gross domestic product growth in the first quarter was around 6 percent, down from 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, a government researcher said on Wednesday.
The comments give a clearer indication than an earlier report by the website of the official Shanghai Securities News, which said that growth in the first quarter was between 6.0 percent and 6.8 percent.
Growth of around 6 percent would be the slowest since quarterly records began in 1992, and just below the pace of 6.3 percent expected by economists polled by Reuters. [ID:nPEK325406]
Asked what GDP was in the first quarter, Fan Jianping, director of the economic forecasting department of the State Information Centre, told reporters: "Around 6 percent."
The Shanghai Securities News website reported earlier that growth slipped to a record low in the first quarter, but that the quarter-on-quarter increase might point to a recovery.
"China's annual GDP growth in the first quarter was higher than 6.0 percent, but lower than the 6.8 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2008," the newspaper (www.cnstock.com) said without identifying its sources.
Three sources familiar with government policy told Reuters that the first-quarter number was in fact in the low end of the range mentioned by the newspaper.
The National Bureau of Statistics will announce GDP growth and other economic data for the first quarter at 0200 GMT on Thursday. (For more stories, click on [ID:nPEK167800])
Despite signs that economic activity is picking up, Fan said that it was too early to say the economy was about to recover.
"We do see some evidence pointing to an economic recovery, but we cannot confirm it as a clear and steady upward trend," Fan said. "We still need to watch more economic indicators in the coming months before we can make that judgment."
Separately, the Shanghai Securities News website said that the State Council, or cabinet, would decide in a meeting on Wednesday whether to launch a new stimulus plan.
Speculation has been rife in recent days that China might announce a new spending package focused on boosting consumption to follow up on the 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion), two-year stimulus plan that it unveiled last November.
The website cited Southwest Securities analyst Dong Xian'an as saying that annualised quarter-on-quarter growth was 6 percent in the first quarter, compared with 1 percent in the last three months of 2008.
Last year's fourth quarter was the bottom for our economy and currently economic growth is evidently recovering, he said. ($1=6.831 Yuan) (Reporting by Jason Subler and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Tomasz Janowski)